/media/images/events/wordfest/images/cefa4549-aa3.png)
Wordfest presents Jody Wilson-Raybould
Hosted by Shelley Youngblut
Wordfest is honoured to present best-selling author Jody Wilson-Raybould and her timely new book, True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change. This 75-conversation, hosted by Wordfest's Shelley Youngblut, is for those who want to be genuine allies and join forces with Indigenous people for positive change. It starts at 1 PM MT and will include an audience Q&A and book signing.
We are grateful to Penguin Random House Canada for enabling us to connect you with Jody Wilson-Raybould.
About True Reconciliation
There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? It is clear that people from all over the country want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. We just need to know how to get started. This book provides that next step. For Wilson-Raybould, what individuals and organizations need to do to advance true reconciliation is self-evident, accessible, and achievable. True Reconciliation is broken down into three core practices – Learn, Understand, and Act – that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments.
The practices are based not only on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization, but also on the deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. Fundamental to a shared way of thinking is an understanding of the Indigenous experience throughout the story of Canada. In a manner that reflects how work is done in the Big House, True Reconciliation features an “oral” history of these lands, told through Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices from our past and present.
The ultimate and attainable goal of True Reconciliation is to break down the silos we’ve created that prevent meaningful change, to be empowered to increasingly act as “inbetweeners,” and to take full advantage of this moment in our history to positively transform the country into a place we can all be proud of.
About Jody Wilson-Raybould
The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., O.B.C., K.C., served as the Independent Member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence until her resignation in 2019. Wilson-Raybould is a Principal of JWR Group, a lawyer, an advocate and leader among Canada’s Indigenous Peoples with a strong reputation as a bridge builder between communities, and a champion of good governance and accountability. She has been a provincial crown prosecutor, a councillor for the We Wai Kai Nation, a chair of the First Nations Finance Authority and has served as the BC regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Wilson-Raybould has written two bestselling books, “Indian” inthe Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power (2021) and From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada (2019).
Jody Wilson-Raybould is a descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, which are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw, also known as the Kwak’wala-speaking peoples. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation. Her traditional name, Puglaas, means “woman born to noble people.”
About Host Shelley Youngblut
Shelley Youngblut is the CEO & Creative Ringleader of Wordfest. She was the recipient of the 2020 Calgary Award for Community Achievement in the Arts and the 2018 Rozsa Award for Arts Leadership. She also won the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Western Magazine Awards. Youngblut was the founding editor of Calgary’s award-winning Swerve magazine and has created magazines for ESPN, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Nickelodeon, Western Living, and The Globe and Mail. A former pop-culture correspondent for ABC World News Now and Canada AM, she is now a weekly panelist on CBC Radio's Daybreak Alberta. Follow her on Twitter @youngblut and Instagram @youngblutshelley.
